Audio 4:18
Veterans turn to social media

Jenni HendersonUpdated
Tue 29 Oct 2013, 7:37 PM AEDT

Veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq are struggling to seek psychological help after suffering trauma overseas and are turning to informal channels such as social media and online chat rooms to share their experiences and vent their anger. The Department of Veterans Affairs says it's still learning when it comes to providing appropriate counselling for these veterans, meanwhile more are coming home.

Transcript

DAVID MARK: The Prime Minister Tony Abbott has announced the end of Australia's war in Afghanistan, our longest ever.

Twenty-thousand Australians have served in Afghanistan since 2002. Many of the troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq are suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder.

Increasingly they're turning to informal channels such as social media and chat rooms to share their experiences and vent their anger about a lack of support.

Jenni Henderson reports.

VETERAN'S FACEBOOK COMMENT 1 (voiceover): ADF (Australian Defence Force) bangs on about duty of care for its people, what a load of bullshit. When defence personnel come forward with PTSD symptoms, why is ADF culture still victimising them as weak?

VETERAN'S FACEBOOK COMMENT 2 (voiceover): The public need to understand that PTSD is like... it has the equivalent impact of quality of life as being a paraplegic.

JENNI HENDERSON: These comments are from a Facebook page set up as a forum for returned veterans of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

They are venting about what they feel is a lack of understanding in the general public for the experience of these latest veterans.

They are also criticising the Australian Defence Force on their treatment of psychological conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD.

Social media pages like this provide an anonymous and safe environment for veterans to share their views away from the official channels. The Department of Veterans Affairs is aware of this and says it's a good first port of call for recently returned veterans but they need to seek further help.

STEPHANIE HODSON: If people are actually finding that they are sharing their stories and that's helping that's fine, but there's a point where if you are angry with those people around you, where you are feeling down and not engaged, at that point it's actually really important to go to websites.

JENNI HENDERSON: Dr Stephanie Hodson has served in the Australian Defence Force as a psychologist for 22 years and has worked in advising the Department of Veterans Affairs on counselling services for another 10.

The websites she is referring to are ones provided by the department, such as the At Ease portal, which aims to connect veterans to further psychological services and information on suicide prevention.

She says there is a problem in getting veterans to come forward for help through these official channels.

STEPHANIE HODSON: Often people, one of the biggest problems in coming forward to care, is the person's own feeling that in some way they've failed or in some way they feel weak.

JENNI HENDERSON: Others agree. Scott May is a veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan. He also says many veterans are becoming increasingly disconnected from the wider community because of what they have been through.

SCOTT MAY: There was the odd comment that people would make, that would sort of, you know, ridicule what we were doing over there but at the end of the day that was my job. I was asked to do my job, I did my job. The political reasons behind it are there for me to argue.

You know I think you go through such a unique experience and to come home, you just sort of, it's almost like standing in a room and no-one sort of sees you there and they don't quite understand what you're going through.

JENNI HENDERSON: Mr May decided to seek out further help when he was dissatisfied with defence force counselling he received when he returned from service. He says it took a referral from an external veterans support group to another doctor before he was finally able to get a diagnosis of battle fatigue and depression.

SCOTT MAY: I've sort of met a lot of people, met a lot of guys who are ex-defence, and it sort of seems to be the same thing that's just happening over and over and over and over again. So I think defence have tried to address it but they're sort of falling down a little bit.

JENNI HENDERSON: He says the current services are based on the experience of past wars veterans, such as those who returned from the Vietnam War and the experience of modern day veterans is very different.

SCOTT MAY: Social and economic pressures come into it and the world is a vastly different world than it was back in the 70s. I think that defence are in the sort of position where they are starting off behind the eight ball because they have to learn everything over again.

JENNI HENDERSON: Dr Hodson says what the department has learnt from the experience of Vietnam War veterans is that many of those veterans only sought treatment 10 years later and early intervention by psychological services is essential.

She also acknowledges that in the internet age, veterans have social media at their fingertips and they're still learning the best way to connect them with help.

STEPHANIE HODSON: This is a different cohort but there's a different cohort even in terms of the way they use social media. A huge push in the department has been around what do they want from us? What are the tools that we can give them that they actually need?